Sunday, March 18, 2007

The battle of the Ens got under way amidst a palpable playoff atmosphere.

The best thing about it is that the Pens didn't look nervous.These winning streaks and the presence of some veterans are paying dividends.It would be ignorant to suggest the Pens didn't know the implications of this game, but seriously...they didn't look flustered.

The teams jobbed around for the first half of the opening period.The early highlight was Georges Laraque backchecking his balls off to stop Chris Neil on a semi-breakaway after Scuderi wandered the deepest he's ever been into the offensive zone.

Pensblog Chris Note: Mark Recchi is coming down with Jan Hrdina Syndrome.Just like Hrdina would always try to get it to Jagr, Recchi would sacrifice one of his pets to get the puck to Bing on any given shift.

Later, a high-sticking penalty put Ottawa on the powerplay.No one in Pens Nation is sure when it happened, but you no longer assume a team is going to score on an early power play like that anymore.

Towards the end of the power play, Talbot is a maniac.To further cement suspicions of him being on acid, he sparks a late shorthanded rush.He gets it over to Ponch...who gives it to Gonch.Gonch gets it back to a wide-open Jon Baker. He buries it.

Roger that.( Steve Craig )

While you were having sex in celebration of that goal, Ottawa gets 22 shots on Fleury in a matter of seconds.Antoin Vermette ouellets it into the net to tie the game.

Vermette eventually picks up the trash to tie the game.It still doesn't change the fact that his mother was born at a flea market.

Later in the first, Orpik douches a Senator into the boards with an egregious cross-check.No penalty.

But then Crosby gets messed with.Penalty.

No dice.

MAFer came up big, stoning more Senators than Towelie during that first period.Ouellet blocking more shots than a Secret Service agent.

.................................................

The Senators are clowns.

Three minutes into the second, Volchenkov stupidly interferes with Fleury.

Goal.

Crosby, whose selfishness will be the end of this Penguin team, steals a pass that was intended for Malkin and scores to overtake Malkin in the Pens goal-scoring race.We get it, Sid.

Before you could fart, Alfreddson redirects a Joe Corvo point shot to tie the game up.Remember -- it's not the playoffs yet so Alfreddson doesn't dissapear.

The next couple minutes saw Sergei Gonchar come flying into your picture to flatten Orange Sherbert along the boards.

Orange Sherbet, a cold six-pack, and a Pens game is as close to Heaven as some people will ever get.

Joe Melichar was playing in his 300th game tonight, and he celebrated by taking a holding penalty.

The PK unit stands tall again.

Christensen's name is starting to find its way around the NHL.Dean McAmmond finds it necessary to hook Christensen and gets a penalty.The Pens don't score, but holy hell...they are starting to become really scary...just in time, too.Malkin hydroplaned during that power play.

Battling down deep, cross-corner dumping with pure excellence.Gary Roberts is everywhere.He even hosts a show on PBS.

The second Andrew Weitzel photoshop that has included blood spatters.(If you didn't catch the first one, go into the previous post's comments.The pic is not condoned by The Pensblog in any way.Again...it's in the previous comments section.)

The My Two Sons (Roberts-Talbot-Army) line draws a penalty.On the ensuing power play, Crosby one-touches it to Whitney, who then delays the play from happening.But still buries it.3-2.

Remember when we said Roberts was everywhere?Well, that includes the penalty box, too.But the Pens kill that penalty...and Malone and Staal almost scored a huge goal.

Roberts gets a penalty-box breakaway but forgets what's going on.

If you thought the second-period action was done at that time, you were wrong.Chris Neil presses the R2 button and streaks into the Pens zone uncontested but rings it off the pipe.

During the Devils game, Steigerwald headily mentioned that the Pens have to start getting into playoff mode; meaning that when you go into the third period with a lead, you better learn how to keep it.

We passed the test against the Devils.Here we go again.

Erik Christensen sets up Roberts with a sweet play, but Roberts just misses.Later in the same shift, the Pens miss their fourth or fifth chance to job in a goal.

The action goes to the other end, and Fleury flops around like Kerri Strug trying to keep the game tied.

Kerri Strug has disappeared.

And then we get an in-depth look at Gary Roberts' career as a fighter, as we are given the tale of the tape between him and some 12th-grader he rocked back in high school.

Then, out of nowhere, Mr. Magoo starts sending everyone to the box.Even Dan Potash got a two-minute minor during that span.

Two minutes for dominating.

Dan Potash's penalty comes back to haunt the Pens.Wade Redden jobs one from the point that goes through more traffic than I-376 Monroeville.3-3.

Before you knew what happened, Ottawa was then catapulted onto yet another power play.

But Staal picks off a pass and heads off on another shorthanded rush.He's held up, and Ottawa gets penalized.

Ottawa coach Bryan Murray, who apparently has never seen a penalty before, flips out when Alfredsson is called for goalie intereference.

Boom.Bryan Murray drinks his own pee.

Huge save on Vermette by MAF to keep the game tied up.

The Pens fly to the other end and do everything imaginable to take the lead.Steigerwald says the Pens are passing too much, but for the first time ever, that's not the case.We may be right; we may be wrong.But all of the plays still resulted in solid scoring chances.

Time ticks down.Overtime City.

Before overtime, you would've been wise to remove your testicles so they wouldn't break when they fell off in that five-minute insanity.

Senators almost get a goal.Praise whoever you praise that Mike Fisher isn't left-handed.He would've one-timed an easy goal, and you would've started a 48-hour meth binge.

Overtime winds down...

Erik Christensen tries the Jussi Jokinen move and is denied.

Mike Comrie tries to Shaquille O'Neal one in, but no dice.

Evgeni Ruutu is next. Goal. Stunned. 1-0.

Dean McAmmond shoots it into Fleury's glove.

Crosby comes in and looks for someone to pass to. Denied.Antoin Vermette is next. MAF's fake-pokecheck move is disgusting.

Game.

Stats

Crosby: 1 G, 1 A

Gonchar: 2 A

Whitney: 1 G, 1 A

Shots: Sens -- 35 ------- Pens -- 19

Powerplay: Sens (1 for 6 ) Pens ( 2 for 8 )

Miscellaneous

Gonchar was a machine tonight.

Pens putting in more overtime than Robert Downey Jr.'s publicist.

I wish we knew why Ruutu is the new number-two shooter.

Billco is the better buy.

Bryan Murray= Baby

A win Monday night puts the Pens in a tie with the Devils for first place. The Devils will keep the throne since they have played fewer games. Regardless, does anyone want that division-champion bull's eye on our backs going into the playoffs?

.............................................

Do it.7

Pensblog Nick:Pens have 92 points.Carolina could get maximum of 98.NYR could get 99.NYI could get 100.Toronto can get 98.

great win. so close to the division lead. need a win tomorrow, then it's 2 days of celebrating. i can't wait for the playoffs to start... i'm going to be "sick" from my job a lot then, i can tell already.

Oh geez....what a post!!! What a game!!! I almost had my 100th heart attack of the season......Adam, only ONE pair...haha. ;)

Rachel, looking forward to the MAF shootout shutout stat. I was actually wondering that myself...

Jay, I didn't hear it at first...but I was on the phone with my friend, and she told me about it being at the end of the 3rd. So, I rewound my tape, and there it was (with about 3:25 left). Hahaha....I couldn't tell if, whoever said it, said "Throw the f**king thing," or "Blow the f**king thing!" Either way....hilarious. :D

The Gary Robert's Neighborhood pic is nasty (in a good way). He looks fucking demented. Which according to Siegfried and Roy, our lovely color commentators, he undoubtedly is. They are experts in mental health.I don't think anybody can beat this team in a series. Nobody. Well, maybe the Isles & FL, because we seem to suck against them, but they'll be felching each other in April, so it doesn't matter.Eaton's back soon, too.The young guys aren't hitting a wall late in the season, either.Damn. Special. Poop.

And Frito-Will,You have a few options for symbols. There's the "at" symbol...@...the number/pound symbol...#...the "and" symbol...&...(which is close to Prince's former one). My personal favorite, however, is the "money" symbol...$.....'cause you're just sooo money. ;)

It's about damn time Orpik started playing like the demon-beast he is. He's a really big dude, and he needed to start playing like it. Now that he is, I'm relatively sure he's going to kill someone, and you know what? It's the best thing ever!

However, he does need to watch where he's holding that stick when he proceeds to murder someone. No use spending 2 minutes in the box, yanno?

Sweet games the last 5+ games. I was moving my brother to Charlotte last week and had people text me updates on the games cause he didn't have TV or internet for a few days.

All this stuff is unbelievable.

Oh, and i listened to the game on internet radio last night and in the SO Lange was saying that Ruutu is a badass in shootouts during practice. When i played soccer we would have competitions in practice all the time to see who would shoot in a shootout, and it's not always the person you suspect. I'm assuming this is the same thing. Either way i think it's sweet he could become the next crusher in shootouts.

I caught the youtube video of phil borque celebrating with the cup. Friggin hilarious. I watched it like 12 times. Reminds me a lot of the movie Boogie Nights. Anyone else notice that? "Let's take this cup to the river, and PARTY ALL SUMMER!".... priceless.

Is there some sort of pensblog AIM chatroom during the game. If so, i'm in. If not, there should be.

"It was weird, man. He came down really slow, a guy like that who doesn't get many minutes coming down in the shootout, you know he's got something coming up. It was a funny move. I didn't know what to expect."

- Senators goaltender Ray Emery on the goal he allowed by Jarkko Ruutu in Ottawa's 4-3 shootout loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday.

Thomes, I'm psyched about Jarkko too! I've been waiting for him to be put in the SO ever since he scored on that penalty shot earlier this season. It's pretty cool that he was the only one to get the SO goal, considering (on a rare night), Crusher couldn't find the net.

Emery could have read War & Peace in the time it took Ruutu to get down the ice. He got deked out of his pants by a guy going two miles an hour. I actually laughed out loud...the only slower shootout I've seen this year is that one by Nylander where he went retarded halfway to the net and the puck just kind of trickled off into the corner.

Who will kill someone first this season: Brooks Orpik or Gary Roberts? You guys should take a poll.

the TSN power rankings blow this week. Sens at number 1??? Aren't we a hotter team than they are right now PLUS we just beat them twice. They talk about their losses being in OT as a good thing but the pens' wins in OT being a bad thing.

After this game, the only teams that scare me a little bit now are NJ and Tampa. We sucked against Tampa HARD the last time and Broduer is fuckin' unstoppable in the playoffs. If we can avoid them, the Cup is OURS.

After a 3-0-1 week, the Senators again move up our Rankings. Food for thought: After a hard-fought battle vs. the Pens on Sunday night (Murray and Therrien had to be separated after the first period), do you think Ottawa would like to have Gary Roberts now?

Apparently Therrien didn't like Coach Assface talking to Crosby and giving him a hard time. Therrien lit into him, took a page out of Ruutu's book-o-quotes, and called him a retard, a fucking pussy, and then mixed it up by questioning whether or not he even had manbits.

As far as the Tootoo hit goes, I really don't see anything wrong with it. It was blatantly obvious that Robidas was coming to attempt to murder Tootoo, so by all means, punch away. I'm sure if he had the time he would have dropped the gloves, but Robidas was a good 3 feet away before he even turned around, so you gotta do what you gotta do. I have no compassion at all for Robidas, and in fact, with the way he was charging in there, I hope he has a concussion and feels it for a good long while.

Playoff beard for me as well. The downside is I have a scar under my chin from when I was 4, and no hair grows there at all. It looks rather jaunty, in a "wtf is that" sort of way.

The only people not responsible for that loss are Thibault, Fleury, and the guys in the press box. Boneheaded play by Scuderi, sure, but the Pens were dragging ass around the ice all night.

By all rights, the Rangers shouldn't have needed a goal in the final minute to win it. They were killing the Pens in every aspect of the game and Thibault kept bailing them out. Hopefully they take a day off and get some rest. Their schedule over the past week was brutal.

The faceoffs killed the Pens especially when key ones were lost. But how much could you expect with the Pens playing 5 games in the past 7 days with 2 back to backs. Thibault played hard, stopped 40 shots, and gave the Pens a chance to win. He deserved another W.

Since this game was shown on Versus, which of course I don't get, I had to listen to the radio, but back to the point, I had some time to make some photoshops that I'll email you guys tomorrow.